Success running a Mecha game in 3.*?

[Ilorin Lorati]

I'm in the process of designing a campaign for a group of friends, and I've been looking for a good set of mecha rules for d20. Unfortunately, after spending some time looking, all of the ones that I've found have been overly complicated and look like they'd slow down the game even more than my typically slow group of players tend to do all on their own.

Has anyone come across any good, streamlined mecha extensions or having any luck simulating it with another group of supplements? As mentioned, I've looked at the d20 future rules rules for Mecha but I wasn't impressed with it - a particular issue being its focus on modern rules that I won't be using.

[BWR]

d20 Mecha (http://www.together.net/~tjoneslo/MechaD20%20SRD.pdf) is free, but I don't know how well it works in practise.

[XmonkTad]

I played in a dragonmech campaign once. Not exactly balanced rules, but aside from stating out the mechs it didn't add on all that much time to normal play.
We had fun, "gear forests" are a pain though.

[VariSami]

I have yet to run a mecha game with them but I own both DragonMech and Iron Kingdoms sourcebooks. In both cases, the biggest problem is an utter disregard for the few things which help make a kludge like D20 relatively streamlined (as in, in relation to how many things may be tinkered with). Thus, their problem comes in the form of needlessly specialized skills and overtly complicated creation rules but from what I remember, the actual rules for mech combat are only slightly more complicated. I believe both add the dimension of only damaging specific parts or otherwise disabling a mech before it is utterly destroyed.

DragonMech might be slightly better in this regard simply because of how the mechs are mostly so large. You may battle them, but for the most part, such battles are mech vs. mech. (Especially if you opt to run E6 or E8 which might be fun in order to preserve the speciality of these hulking machines.) I am not sure about this but maybe the rules for fighting Colossi in the Shadow of the Colossus addition (I know I have seen it; I just cannot find it for now) could help here, although they would likely add to the complexity.

[Theobod]

I am currently running a scifi game using 3.5. All tier 4 classes and using the Stronghold builders guide to create the mechs and starships. its so far worked rather well. we use pf guns as a base for firearms. ride got split into ride (for ridden vehicles like bikes) drive (for internal driven land vehicles) and pilot (for internal driven 3d movement vehicles) and nabbing d20moderns rules for machine fire etc. we also allow incremental and special masterworks to open up functionality on guns, mecha etc. feel free to prod for more info if your interested

[Ilorin Lorati]

d20 Mecha (http://www.together.net/~tjoneslo/MechaD20%20SRD.pdf) is free, but I don't know how well it works in practise.

Somehow I missed that one; I'll look through it.



I have yet to run a mecha game with them but I own both DragonMech and Iron Kingdoms sourcebooks. In both cases, the biggest problem is an utter disregard for the few things which help make a kludge like D20 relatively streamlined (as in, in relation to how many things may be tinkered with). Thus, their problem comes in the form of needlessly specialized skills and overtly complicated creation rules but from what I remember, the actual rules for mech combat are only slightly more complicated. I believe both add the dimension of only damaging specific parts or otherwise disabling a mech before it is utterly destroyed.

My players are the kinds of people that would revel in the sheer magnitude of being able to design their own mecha; it's the skill use that I'm worried about. As long as in play they're not too bad then I'll look into those books.


I am currently running a scifi game using 3.5. All tier 4 classes and using the Stronghold builders guide to create the mechs and starships. its so far worked rather well. we use pf guns as a base for firearms. ride got split into ride (for ridden vehicles like bikes) drive (for internal driven land vehicles) and pilot (for internal driven 3d movement vehicles) and nabbing d20moderns rules for machine fire etc. we also allow incremental and special masterworks to open up functionality on guns, mecha etc. feel free to prod for more info if your interested

I'm afraid my game is still going to be a fantasy game so the modern rules and stuff will largely be supplanted by magic.


Thanks for the help, you all!

[ComaVision]

There's always Clockwork Armour (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/cw/20070212a) as well.

[Grod_The_Giant]

Mutants and Masterminds is (technically) d20, and works great for mecha games. For 2e, there's a dedicated sourcebook (http://greenroninstore.com/products/mecha-and-manga-pdf); 3e only has a short pdf (http://greenroninstore.com/collections/mutants-masterminds-third-edition/products/mutants-masterminds-gadget-guide-mecha-pdf), but it's considerably cheaper. (The bulk of the system is available in a free srd (www.d20herosrd.com))